Rested Departing looks to stop Derby winner short of Triple Crown

Published 9:49 pm, Monday, May 13, 2013

Orb is the horse everyone knows about. The Kentucky Derby winner will have the eyes of the nation on him when he attempts to claim the second leg of the Triple Crown in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

He will face a number of runners who could not beat him on the sloppy track at Churchill Downs on May 4. But he will also be running against a few horses for the first time, and one of them may pose the biggest threat to trainer Shug McGaughey's Triple Crown dreams.

His name is Departing, and he makes his Classic debut on Saturday after showing more than a little talent in his five-race career. The gelding, a son of War Front, has won four of them. The only time he didn't win was when he ran third in the Grade II Louisiana Derby behind Revolutionary (third in the Kentucky Derby) and Mylute (fifth). Golden Soul, the long-shot second-place finisher in Kentucky, finished 11/2 lengths behind Departing in Louisiana.

Departing is trained by Al Stall. Remember him? He trained Blame, who won the 2010 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga and then went on to beat the brilliant Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic. That was the last race of Zenyatta's 20-race career and her only loss.

The last time he ran, Departing romped to win the Grade III Illinois Derby on April 20. His margin of victory was 31/4 lengths. Granted, he didn't beat any stalwarts of the 3-year-old division, but he is coming to Baltimore fresh.

Having a fresh horse doesn't necessarily translate into a blanket of black-eyed Susans, which is traditionally draped across the Preakness winner. The last time a horse who did not run in the Derby won the Preakness was the filly Rachel Alexandra, in 2009.

However, she had run the day before the Derby, winning the Kentucky Oaks, so she wasn't any fresher than any of the colts who competed in that year's Preakness. In 2006, Bernardini was the Preakness winner, and he didn't run in the Derby, but that race fell apart as soon as Barbaro broke down in the early stages.

Stall says he is bringing a horse to Baltimore that should be ready to run. Whether he can upset Orb is another question.

"We are going in with a horse we know is doing well," he said. "We think he is a nice horse, but, other than that, I have no idea. We plan on going in there without hesitation and we think he will run his race, but whether that is good enough to beat Orb, I have no earthly idea."

Stall said he decided to skip the Kentucky Derby because, after the third-place finish in Louisiana, Departing did not have enough experience to take on the big boys. It was then decided to head to the Illinois Derby, which was not a race in which horses could pick up points to get into the Kentucky Derby field.

"After (Louisiana Derby) we said, 'well, the (Kentucky) Derby is too tough," Stall said. "We didn't even really consider it, to be quite honest with you. We thought the Illinois Derby fit our schedule, and after he ran such a good race, then we started considering the Preakness."

And now, here he is. Because he is fresh, Departing will have more than a puncher's chance, but he will still have to beat Orb, as will everyone else who enters. The draw for the Preakness is Wednesday.

"The one thing is (Departing) is going to have his legs under him," MeGaughey said. "We've got to come back in two weeks. But I think we'll have fresh legs, and I think that Orb will be fine. We haven't overcooked him by any means over the winter, and I think he'll be just as fresh as the rest of them even though he just ran."